


Setting the Monster Free

by wonderlandiscrumbling



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mental Illness, Mentions of Suicide, Realizations, Spoilers for Season Four, season four
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-04-01 08:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13994184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandiscrumbling/pseuds/wonderlandiscrumbling
Summary: It wasn't until a couple of days out of Arkham that he started to realize the man who entered Arkham and the man he left with were in no way the same.





	Setting the Monster Free

There was something off. Oswald hadn’t wanted to admit it, not out loud nor to himself, but he had to now. He had to admit as they sat together in the car, as he looked over at Riddler, that there was something wrong. He thought about their time together, he thought about that night on the couch many months ago, the way Ed’s eyes had been full of love and adoration looking at him. He remembered his voice, remembered that softness, the soft tone he used to speak to him in. He thought of Riddler’s voice, he thought of the voice of the man who spoke to him in the bird cages. A voice that wasn’t soft, his eyes didn’t hold love or adoration. They held nothing. Suddenly he felt an odd sense of drowning, the panic a child got when a stranger lured them into their car with the promise of candy and driving them back home. He momentarily considered opening the door and just jumping out, he risked serious injury, but it was better than being with him.

The tense silence was broken by laughter, a cold manic laughter he fully recognized as Riddler’s. The sound startled him causing him to jump, his attention fully on him as he tried to force himself to relax. Riddler kept his eyes on the road, he shook his head, his laughter subsiding.

“What’s funny?” Oswald asked, his own voice trembling and he hated himself for it.

“Oh I was just thinking about Ed.”

Oswald swallowed hard, the tension in his body causing his bad leg to ache. He placed a hand against his knee, idly rubbing it as he glanced over at the driver.

“What, what about him?”

“I was just thinking about the way he was acting. Do you know after we got your letter that he threatened to kill himself? I didn’t believe him of course, he’s always bluffed about doing himself in. That was until the moron actually put the noose around his neck, can you believe he was actually going to kill himself, kill me? Thank God I tricked him into that little visit though, if it weren’t for you I’d be long gone.” His laughter resumed, the sound horrible and morbid.

Oswald felt physically ill, his fingers going numb as it sunk in that Ed had tried to kill himself. He closed his eyes letting out a shuddering breath as chills traveled down his spine, he could hear the echoes of Ed’s begging and pleading in Arkham. How scared he had been, it had been as if he’d been threatening to kill him. He looked back over at Riddler realizing he hadn’t been helping them, he’d just set the monster free.


End file.
